Issue 277 Weekender

www.marketingmagazine.com.my

ISSUE # 277 JANUARY 2021

WEEKENDER

WHAT

MAKES YOU THINK

2021 WILL

BE BETTER?

WEEKENDER

popculture

EDITOR'S NOTE

COVER STORY

Never reveal your age.

It always backfires.

The ladies know something we men missed out the day we were born...

04 06

04 08 Here’s To The Oxymorons New Year, Same Old Pandemic.

The world itself and the world of marketing remain upended ...

We ask industry voices on what to expect in the age of the unexpected.

We hope you find more answers than questions…

Will 2021 be like 2020?

To put the current global crisis in perspective, by the end of January, more lives will be lost to the pandemic...

18

MARKETING WEEKENDER is published by Sledgehammer Communications (M) Sdn Bhd 22B, Jalan Tun Mohd Fuad 1, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail 60000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Tel: 603-7726 2588 ham@adoimagazine.com. www.marketingmagazine.com.my © All Rights Reserved By: Sledgehammer Communications (M) Sdn Bhd (289967-W) No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without prior permission in writing from the publisher. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this publication, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions and/ or for any consequences of reliance upon information in this publication. The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the views of the publisher or editor. Advertisements are the sole responsibility of the advertisers.

“WE LEARNED THAT QUIET ISN’T ALWAYS PEACE, AND THE NORMS AND NOTIONS OF WHAT ‘JUST IS’ ISN’T ALWAYS JUSTICE.”

Amanda Gorman, America’s firstever youth poet laureate, reciting her new poem at the recent US presidential inauguration.

“AT FIRST, THINKING UP IDEAS IS LIKE DRAGGING A CHILD TO THE DENTIST. THERE’S RESISTANCE FROM A MIND UNFAMILIAR WITH IDEATION.”

James Altucher fathered the ‘10 ideas a day’ practice

“AWARENESS IS THE GREATEST AGENT FOR CHANGE.” Eckhart Tolle

“EVERYONE WHO WANTS TO BE BUSY IS BUSY. BUT NOT EVERYONE IS PRODUCTIVE. PERHAPS YOUR SELF-CREATED BUSY-NESS IS CAUSING YOU TO BE LESS PRODUCTIVE.” Seth Godin

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Never reveal your age.

It always backfires.

The ladies know something we men missed out the day we were born. It’s only human to pigeonhole someone. Sorry, but the truth hurts. Ask any lady.

And once someone knows your age, they remember only one thing: whether you are younger or older than them.

And the game begins.

Facebook allows the user to hide his/her birth year under Basic Info. And one wonders how did Cambridge Analytica successfully harvest data specific to the voting age segment.

Nobody knows your age from your Facebook profile? Right!

My uncle makes the best Bak Kut Teh in Kuantan (at least, that’s a fact).

Back to uncovering your age... a little code written to interface your data across several digital touch points will easily expose your real age. And they don’t

even have to count the number of candles on the birthday cake proudly displayed on your Page.

Those were the days when companies proudly boasted their heritage in sign-offs like “Estd 1942” and so on.

In today’s world, where almost everything and everyone has been given their digital

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badge by some algorithm written by a child genius, being old may not be such a good thing.

Unless you make wines or spirits.

Goes without saying that the young treat the old as being old.

Not anything else. Even if you were the Prime Minister at 93, or ran the half marathon at 88, old is old. If you want to feel better, old is gold they say. And you’ll never be smarter or sharper than them, at least in their minds.

Did someone mention wisdom? Hey, there’s always Google.

As I celebrate my 53rd

birthday this year, I fear I may become irrelevant in a world that thinks it is smarter than me.

Shall I sign up for another digital marketing degree programme?

Respectfully,

Here’s an amazing freebie for all our readers, download the Global Agency Tree 2021 here – it is an invaluable reference chart!

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Here’s To The Oxymorons

New Year, Same Old Pandemic.

The world itself and the world of marketing remain upended in 2021.

What should we do, to tackle the uncertainty that guffaws in our faces?

Here’s three Oxymorons for this Year of the Ox. 1. Brand-building is sacrosanct and price sensitivity matters Every marketing dollar is being questioned. There is tremendous pressure to deliver on sales. E-commerce could be the pivot and saviour. In all this, brand building continues to be a casualty. Yet, long-standing research and current consumer shopping trends show that the only way to ensure long term success is to make sure we continue to build the brand and not lose sight of it. Consumers are fleeing to the familiarity of big brands, as per Unilever. So advertisers need to ensure they are seen as big, safe brands. And

yet all brands need to provide value and be sensitive to the tightened purses and stressed disposable income of their customers. Hence the need to reconcile brand building while also providing economic value and savings. Some e-commerce brands and FMCG players lead the way.

2. Media consumption habits will remain largely unchanged.

Digital still rises. And a successful media mix should include more than digital.

TV ratings went up 20% during the first MCO, and then fell back 20%, to pre-Covid levels during RMCO. Traffic on roads dropped dramatically, as per Ampersand Advisory and Moving Walls research, then came

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roaring back to 80-105% of preCovid levels. 78% of Malaysians watched more videos online during 2020 than before. Content streaming and video formats rule.

We’re promenading in Bridgerton, and playing chess with the Queen’s Gambit.

Does this mean ad spends should go 100% digital?

Absolutely not.

My own experience, and our work across 30+ categories shows that a judicious mix of digital and offline media works better than a pure digital campaign, as long as there is sufficient budget. Digital is not the panacea and the final answer. Consumers do need the credibility, scale and real-world reassurance of traditional media.

But traditional media players need to up their game in terms of accountability, pricing and data reporting, to stand a chance of getting back into reduced ad budgets.

3. Data is critical and customer experience is paramount We’ve all heard Data is the new Oil. But while everyone tries to build their data warehouses, one of the key uses of data must be to deliver better customer

experience. Customers are data points, but they are also people.

In the USA, 96% of customers were willing to leave a brand because of bad service and poor customer experience. In Malaysia, depending on category and research source, at least 22-30% of customers can be switched away from the brand they were intending to buy: in-store and online. In store and online.

Brands must use data to better the customer experience, reengineer processes and strengthen loyalty. Else, data warehouses will merely be capturing the sound of customers shuffling away.

We need to balance conflicting demands to make these three oxymorons our friends. Then the Year of the Ox will be one to remember.

Sandeep Joseph is the CEO and co-founder of Ampersand Advisory, a strategic media consultancy that was Campaign Magazine’s Malaysia Independent Agency of the Year for 2019 and 2020. The views expressed here are his own: you can debate with him at sandeep@ ampersand-advisory.com

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2021 HERE WE COME! We ask industry voices on what to expect in the age of the unexpected. We hope you find more answers than questions…

FASTER, CHEAPER, BETTER. The customer journey has changed forever. Integration is now a verb, and marketers need tangible ways to make it a reality. Retail and e-commerce, technology and entertainment, influencers and consumers. The question is no longer “Why should we do this?” but “How?”

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Brands need a totally new way of communication and will be looking for partners that show their ability to adapt to the times. And forget about a single-agency partnership.

Marketers are no longer afraid of working with multiple partners.

What brands want is an agency

“The value of pitches will be driven down both by budget decline and more projectbased pitching. Inhousing, as a trend, is not necessarily driven by cost efficiency...”

GREG PAULL Principal, R3

model that can deliver on expectations and help them stand out in their category.

The value of pitches will be driven down both by budget decline and more project-based pitching. In-housing, as a trend, is not necessarily driven by cost efficiency alone, in some cases, it may cost more than outsourced expertise, depending on scale.

Clients are looking for “faster, cheaper, and better” output.

Without the use of technology and new ways of collaborating, this will always be a pipe dream for agencies.

RESISTANCE TRAINING I remember reading Anthony Robbins who had a chapter titled ‘Questions are the Answers’. He postured that the right questions will lead us to the right answers.

This has helped me see things differently. This period, requires us to ask of ourselves and our teams powerful empowering questions.

Over time, I have come to realise that if we frame the right questions, we will somehow uncover the answers in our search. There are always answers.

I think the trick is to fail fast and move on so that we can find

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those answers that work.

This environment has forced us to build our business muscles. As an ex-insurance sales professional of 18 years, I was trained to think positively.

I would somehow like to think that this resistance training will help us all fast forward our business growth over the next 5 years.

“I remember reading Anthony Robbins who had a chapter titled ‘Questions are the Answers’...”

SAILENDRA K Founder, Visual Retale

WFHOA HERE TO STAY Forgive the stubborn optimist in me but in 2021, I believe the world will get much prettier.

There will be a greater sense of civilisational decency with Biden at the top of global leadership. Part of the global correction would be a saner USChina conversation; renewed focus on climate; and probably a partial reset of the ‘extremefeels-mainstream’ algorithms of social media that have given rise to deep right wing insecurities everywhere.

In our industry, a certain hybrid “WFHOA” (home, office or anywhere) model will become the norm.

Office for induction, bonding and brainstorms - processes where exchange of human energy is central. Home for regular work, reporting and basic collaborations. Anywhere for tapping varying moods as per the day, time, company and stress levels.

Smart clients realise that online sales - where data asymmetry between products on one side and global media platforms and eCommerce marketplaces on the other - is

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“Smart clients realise that online sales where data asymmetry between products on one side and global media platforms and eCommerce...�

PRASHANT KUMAR Founder & Senior Partner ENTROPIA vastly unfavourable to products.

Hence the need for stronger branding is greater than ever More so, as brands fight to take control of their first party data in a cookie-less world to help protect their margins.

Branding, owned data and a delightful integrated marketing experience design built around it are the three holy grails to note.

YEAR OF CREATIVE RECKONING Over the past few years, I found exceptional creative work to be missing from the market.

Work that makes me want to kick myself for not having thought of it in the first place.

Malaysia was ranked as one of the top creative nations in this region. Today, we are in a very different state.

I am genuinely concerned with where the creative industry is heading. Is it due to the lack of talent caused by the brain drain? Or because work is being approved by committees wanting a piece of themselves in it?

Do clients provide an unrealistic budget and timeline, but expect incredibly highquality of work in return?

Maybe the creative people are just over-stretched, burnt out and treating creative opportunities as just another deadline they have to deliver and no longer a part of their passion.

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“I am genuinely concerned with where the creative industry is heading.

Is it due to the lack of talent caused by the brain drain?

Or because work is being approved by committees wanting a piece of themselves in it?...”

TAN KIEN ENG CEO of Publicis Groupe/ Leo Burnett Group Malaysia

We need to urgently rectify this and bring back the fun, the pride, and the joy of being part of the creative industry. Creativity gets stifled when there’s fear overriding the fun.

The creative industry is an essential component of the business world. If not treated with care and respect, brands will lose their competitive edge and be slaves at the hands of platforms.

HUMANITY RULES 2021 is a testament for all of humanity. Businesses who can connect and influence people virtually without physical engagement will sustain and shine.

Consumers need real value that can help improve the quality of life, to sustain, ie. health and family are the key issues now.

Businesses who continue to focus their budget to show off the luxury outlook or sophisticated hi-tech features in their products, are accelerating towards the exit.

Reconnecting humanity with authentic sharing and focusing on functional values is key for sustainability in 2021.

Authenticity is the new creativity.

Businesses who appreciate the

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fundamental basics of life and able to provide real values to improve humanity will win.

“Consumers need real value that can help improve the quality of life, to sustain, ie. health and family are the key focus now. Businesses who continue to focus their budget in showing off the luxury outlook or the sophisticated...”

“A reawakening of the old school, long-term, branding principles, but driven out of, believe it or not, the much aligned, tactical, digital addressable platforms...”

AMIT SUTHA EVP & ED Global Business Mediabrands Content Studio

THAM YEN LEE Head of Marketing Services Astro Media Solutions

DATA WILL DRIVE IDEAS 2021 is going to be interesting, just because it will be built off the experiences of 2020.

Firstly, with a year of remote working behind us, agency

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operations are bound to change with us finding a nice balance between the virtual and the real.

In my view at least, any cost efficiency accrued here needs to be redeployed in investing in capabilities and of course rewarding employees.

Secondly, we should see a rise in creativity within shoppable media.

A reawakening of the old school, long-term, branding principles, but driven out of, believe it or not, the much aligned, tactical, digital addressable platforms.

And this will happen because we as an industry will become more and more sensitive to the creative potential of performance data.

CHALLENGE OF NEW HABITS New normal was 2020.

2021 is permanent normal.

During the first lockdown last year, some businesses could not survive because they had underlying issues that perhaps had been deferred once too often, eg. delaying digitalisation, upgrading their tech strategy, improving cashflow, or even building their brands.

“There are three things to do this year, reinvest into your business to protect current and grow new revenue streams...�

SUE-ANNE LIM CEO Trapper Media Group After the first wave, for businesses who managed to scrape through, there is this false sense of hope that 2021 will be better because there is a vaccine in sight but clearly this is not the case.

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And who knows what other challenges the year has in store for us. This false hope is when we think everything will return to pre-COVID normal.

MCO has shifted consumer behaviours tremendously and when they are prolonged, these shifts become new habits, and the entire consumer journey gets reset.

There are three things to do this year, reinvest into your business to protect current and grow new revenue streams.

Expedite, and not delay any strategic priorities to reinvent your business to cater to the current climate.

And always be laser focused on your consumers and notice sentiments and change.

NO MERCY FOR LEADERS I have heard much chatter claiming 2020 was a trailer of things to come in 2021. But I’ve a slightly different take on this…

While 2020 gave us a chance to prepare ourselves, 2021 will be the year of no mistakes, no excuses and no mercy for business leaders.

Which brings me to the next point which I continue to maintain:

Take care of your people and the business will take care of itself.

Given the wait for vaccination roll out and flip-flopping on lockdowns will continue to disrupt and slow down business plans, the biggest challenge for

“In short, this is the year of unlearning and relearning the business of business for all of us. In my view the focus should be on ‘surviving and thriving’...”

MAZUIN ZIN Managing Director Edelman Malaysia

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us will be keeping the focus, motivation, and enthusiasm of our teams as this will take a toll on overall efficiency and productivity.

This year our entrepreneurial acumen beyond managerial skills will be put to test both within the organization, and the Client ecosystems where we serve in, as off the shelf services and solutions in the name of data, analytics, campaigns and digital will not cut ice.

In short, this is the year of unlearning and relearning the business of business for all of us.

In my view the focus should be on ‘surviving and thriving’ while staying relevant in a world we really don’t know much about.

MARKETERS KEEP MAKING MISTAKES I feel the market will be flat up to the 3rd quarter despite the advent of COVID vaccine and slow recovery in general, except for cyclical business like health care, logistics and tech-centric industries.

Domestic business travel and tourism may resume in the second half and bring much relief to the business. But one has to be innovative and fully leverage on

“So it is up to publishers to tell the good story and unveil the value and power of their news brand.”

EUGENE WONG ED/Group CEO Sin Chew Media Corporation Bhd tech and new opportunities amid the pandemic to sustain.

For news media, many local marketers are still slow in adopting brand safety, ignoring ad fraud and buying into cheap commoditised inventories.

So it is up to publishers to tell the good story and unveil the value and power of their news brand.

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NO LIMIT TO CREATIVITY Gone are the days when doing one’s business meant sticking to and doing what one does best. We did that during the first months of the pandemic.

Till we realised that no matter how we hammered or clawed our way through things we’ve been doing all our lives, it was like putting a square peg in a round hole.

Doing what one does best was shortened to Doing, period.

Doing what?

Suddenly, from practically everywhere, creativity sprouted out like a seedling on the first day of spring.

Suddenly, businessmen, professionals, entertainers, housewives, etc., put on new hats and tried doing new things for dear lives, and amazingly, the first time they did it, it’s as though they’ve been doing it all their lives.

“Production house owner sells bacon”. “Movie star delivers food”. “Housewife assembles products from home never thought of before”.

Interestingly, I just got a text asking about perspectives on the proverbial cup being half full or half empty.

“Till we realised that no matter how we hammered or clawed our way through things we’ve been doing all our lives, it was like putting a square peg in a round hole...”

JULIE P. LINGAN Retired award-winning Creative Director and out of practice concert pianist One replied, “Neither. In this trying time, I am glad I have a cup.”

So what to expect in 2021?

Generally, a whole lot more of the above. As long as the fire of ingenuity burns.

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Will 2021 be like 2020?

By Tony Savarimuthu CEO, Dentsu LHS

To put the current global crisis in perspective, by the end of January, more lives will be lost to the pandemic in the United States than the country’s military death toll in WW2 of 406,000.

Right now we are all hoping that 2021 won’t be like 2020.

Learning One of the improvements in our ‘readapted environment’ is the opportunity for learning and skills and knowledge enhancement delivered at a fraction of the cost or free from multiple sources. At Dentsu, the company’s Skills Academy and the Creative Academy have been a vital source of engagement

to enhance our own ability to learn, grow, as well as offer real world solutions to clients. The Cannes Lions organisation’s programmes, Contagious seminars, and Masterclass (which I am a particular fan of) are all true gifts in these times to spur us creatively.

Creative isolation Some creatives prefer the solitude to think and ideate on their own without interruption but creativity also operates in a very dynamic environment with the spark of conversations, social connections and agency life being central to it. Till now at least, Isolation - which can at times

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... No doubt the power of an idea lies in its simplicity, and some say clients may not need the fanfare to understand this... trigger mental health issues - and solitude which artists require to be productive are two different things. Creatives who are emboldened by the dreams and team-working ethos inevitably rise to the occasion. To that we can say Brian Epstein and George Martin where important cogs in The Beatles wheel.

Producing work Everyone must have heard the Tom Cruise episode on the set of the next Mission: Impossible 7.

Cruise had some ‘choice words’ for some crew members who weren’t complying with rules on set related to COVID-19 prevention. While it wasn’t pleasant to hear, he received both brickbats and kudos. Don’t cancel or postpone – work with your creative partners do the next best thing to get the ideas to market and many have done so.

Life’s a pitch.

I have watched my colleagues Hwa and Szu, and the late Yasmin Ahmad over the years in boardrooms honing and perfecting their art as creators of ideas and presenters. A Live audience and the presenter were central to the idea being bought coming to fruition. No doubt the power of an idea lies in its simplicity, and some say clients may not need the fanfare to understand this. But then again why do people go to a Live concert instead of just tuning into Spotify or Apple Music? Talk show hosts like Trevor Noah, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert have reinvented their respective shows without a Live audience. I also marvel at CNN John King’s election Magic Wall (no bigger than a respectable screen you would have at home) and how he brings data alive with his own insights.

Are there going to be prepandemic levels of growth this year? We shouldn’t bet against it, but take steps to ensure we influence and achieve the outcomes we desire.

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Digital Marketing Innovation

Agency: Pinstorm ECD / Art Director: Shabnam Sirur Writer: Mahesh Murthy

21 ISSUE277JANUARY2021 | WEEKENDER BOB HOFFMAN.COM

I am disgusted with my industry!

Were the advertising and marketing industries primarily responsible for the awful events of the past two weeks? Of course not. Were we complicit? Yes. Earlier this week I wrote a piece for Campaign UK magazine called "How Adtech Helped to Radicalise the US" (The Brits spell things funny.) You can find it here.

"The wedge that has been driven into the fabric of US society has been driven in part by information gathered about American citizens by the adtech ecosystem and fed into algorithms that are employed by platforms and online publishers.

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... The online ad industry is a black box of corruption, fraud, lies, and greed. It contains some good people and an abundance of fools and creeps...

The purpose of these algorithms is primarily to keep visitors 'inside the corral' of the publisher or the platform...To do this, the platforms feed visitors ever more 'engaging' content. Experience has taught the algorithms that the more juicy the material, the more likely they are to retain the visitor.

Consequently, the algorithms feed us incrementally more lurid notions of our own predispositions and connect us ever more closely with others who share them."Â The table below is an attempt to illustrate the process.

The online ad industry is a black box of corruption, fraud, lies, and greed. It contains some good people and an abundance of fools and creeps. It has played an unambiguous role in the radicalization of segments of our society. The people who don’t understand that are either blind or on the putrid $300 billion adtech gravy train.

The "leaders" of the ad industry - you listening Bob Liodice, Marla Kaplowitz and Randall Rothenberg? pretended for years they didn't understand the relationship between tracking, adtech, and polarization. They have opposed every substantial effort to rein in the obscene excesses of the adtech industry and have culpability for the shit storm it has enabled.

It is time for these "leaders" to get out.

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Innovations set to go mainstream Immunity wellness: The world has never been so interested in how our immune systems can be boosted and the coming year will see numerous experts telling us how, from ancient treatments to DNA research.

Mobilizing fandom: Fandoms are taking on a life of their own, moving from simply consuming pop culture to becoming amplifiers and content creators for their idols, online and en masse, with global K-pop fans leading the way.

Cloud gaming: As video games become the latest media to get Netflixized, major players, including Amazon, Google, Tencent, Microsoft, Sony and Facebook, are betting big on cloud gaming.

Big Brands Go Circular: From Gucci to Uniqlo, fashion brands are getting into the secondhand business, driven by rising sustainability concerns and slimmer wallets.

Ghost kitchens: Influenced by the growth of delivery-first dining, this new restaurant concept sees off-premises dining prioritized.

Live commerce: Retail-tainment is moving online with engaging, tailored shopping experiences using video streaming to demonstrate and sell products and interact with customers in real time. *Excerpted from Wunderman Thompson’s The Future 100 Report on trends that will shape 2021

EXPERTS' CHOICE AWARDS

CNY TVCs

2021

MARKETING Magazine’s annual Experts’ Choice Awards, CNY TVC 2021 is here!

MARKETING Magazine readers are marketing communications professionals who work in media, advertising, digital, brand marketing and are behind some of the most memorable advertising and marketing campaigns Malaysians have ever seen, hence why they’re experts.

Over the years we have found that our coverage and polling of the Best Festive TVCs based on our experts’ choice, have had growing success and traction. Our respondents have grown from a few hundred to over a thousand in recent years.

ENTRY SUBMISSION PERIOD 18 January 2021 – 10 February 2021

VOTING PERIOD 12 February 2021 – 26 February 2021 for more information on how to vote, click here.

This year, the top 10 winners will receive a certificate of recognition of MARKETING Magazine’s Experts’ Choice of Top CNY TVCs in Malaysia and the fame that comes with the commendation.

SUBMIT HERE

WINNERS ANNOUNCEMENT

FIND OUT MORE

CONTENT PARTNER

CONTACT Sandesh

sandesh@adoimagazine.com +60 12-330 2154

1 March 2021